104742 Wings 14 Cover.indd 1 11/02/14 11:44 AM Volume 66 No. 1 Wings Official Publication of the AUTUMN 14 RAAF Association EDITOR COVER Editor Lance Halvorson Following the assembly of two Contributions to Editor Wings aircraft at the Central Flying School, PO Box 83, Mitchell ACT 2911 Point Cook, VIC, two airmen Telephone 02 6286 7825 contemplated taking to the air - on Email [email protected] the quiet - with no press around. Web www.raafa.org.au On an overcast Sunday morning, March 1, 1914, the Bristol Biplane, DIVISION CONTACTS was run up and under control of Lieutenant Harrison, ‘floated’ into the ACT 0428 622 105 [email protected] air on the first tentative military flight NSW 02 9393 3485 [email protected] in Australia. Lieutenant Petre then QLD 07 5428 7305 [email protected] joined Harrison later in the day for several more flights, reaching a height of 1000 feet; all SA 08 8227 0980 [email protected] landed without accident. Petre twice went aloft in the TAS 03 6234 3862 [email protected] flyable Deperdussin on the same day. The first military VIC 03 9813 4600 [email protected] flights in Australia were recorded, low key events at the WA 08 9311 4445 [email protected] time. Compare these with the flights achievable in the Super Hornet, the latest fast jet in the RAAF. Cover: Phil Crowther Photos: 6SQN Super Hornets, Replica NATIONAL EXECUTIVE Bristol Boxkite and painting of CAPT Reg Francis by Norman President Brenton Espeland AM Clifford – courtesy of RAAF and Norman Clifford Vice President Governance Peter Fardon FEATURES Advocacy & Entitlements Richard Kelloway OBE MID The Genesis of Australian Aviation 12 Communications & Media Lance Halvorson MBE First Military Pilots’ Course 15 Secretary Ron Usher MBE Early Aviation Prophecies 20 02 62590865 Australian Flying Corps WWI 22 [email protected] Exploring the Nuclear Option 25 Treasurer Bob Robertson Desert Air Force 28 Airlines Growth – 2014 and beyond 29 RAAF Air Power - Continued 32 SUBSCRIPTIONS From F-86 to F-111 Aircraft 36 All enquiries to Wings Editorial & Management Group WWII Veteran’s Medals Return 41 Subscribe to Wings / Join the RAAFA The Tiger Moth Air Race 43 Smart Weapons 44 Send cheque/money order payable to the RAAF Volunteer Air Observers Corps 46 Association (address above). A 12 month subscription Boeing’s Commercial Aircraft 49 (4 issues) is $24.00 within Australia and $A30.00 for Asia and Pacific regional addresses. Include full name, address, contact number and email address. REGULARS To become a member of the RAAF Association, contact National Council Briefs 10 the closest State/Territory Division representative listed. Australian Air League 53 Inwards Mail 56 ADVERTISING AND PRODUCTION Veterans Information 61 Books in Brief 67 Flight Publishing Pty Ltd ABN 66 086 424 259 PO Box 606 Coogee NSW 2024 CLOSING DATES FOR MATERIAL Tel: (02) 9389 1481 Fax: (02) 9387 7143 Autumn Edition - 14 January [email protected] • www.flightpublishing.com.au Winter Edition - 14 April Views and opinions expressed in this publication are the opinions only Spring Edition - 14 July of the authors and not necessarily those of the RAAF Association or Summer Edition - 14 October the Royal Australian Air Force or Dept of Defence WINGS Autumn 2014 1 National Council National Council President’s Message Five Seconds to Midnight allied unit to go into action on the Peninsula – 77 Squadron, Royal Australian Air Force flying Mustangs! The Autumn 2014 edition of Wings features the Centenary of Military Aviation and its editor, Lance Halvorson, has worked If Pete Quesada was somewhat of a buccaneer, then the hard to bring its publication forward in time for the Centenary other visionary I had the good fortune to meet and spend of Military Show at Point Cook on the 1st and 2nd of March some time with was very different in nature. Indeed he was 2014. As mentioned previously, the Air Show will provide a a man of palpable humility. Leonard Cheshire is well known fitting public testament to the five score years of tumultuous for his Pathfinder record, perhaps not so well known for and historic military aviation events that have played a large his presence on the aircraft that dropped the atomic bomb part in shaping Australia’s present and future outlook. on Nagasaki, and deserves the highest of praise for his humanitarian work with his wife in forming and running the This edition also presages the 2014 RAAF Air Power Ryder-Cheshire Foundation. In an interview he gave with Conference to be held in Canberra over the period 12-13 Mark Laity of the BBC shortly before his death, Cheshire March 2014. The RAAF’s biennial Air Power Conference set out the case for the Bomber Offensive against Germany. is now established as the foremost event of its type in the His clear message was doctrine and strategy had to be seen region with many overseas Air Force Chiefs and senior for its full complexity. military and industry representative expected to attend. This Conference, with its theme of airpower across the centenary World War II was total war. Concerns about the doctrinal of military aviation, will complement the Air Show as one of and ethical shortcomings of ‘carpet bombing’ and the use the lead-off events in the Centenary of Anzac year. of incendiaries had to be tempered with the imperative to take the fight up to the Axis Powers in Europe. There was no Against this background, I thought I might canvass other offensive capability available that could be brought to my experiences in coming into contact with a couple bear especially in the early years of the War and for the Allied of distinguished exponents of the intellectual basis leaders, first Churchill, then Stalin and finally Roosevelt, it underpinning the development and application of air power was a doctrine they initially embraced only to later distance – doctrine. It is sobering to think that military aviation is themselves from it as victory approached. Significantly only a 100 years old. Armed conflict on land and at sea has though, they never discarded it. developed over millennia but for air power its genesis was at five seconds to midnight if we regard the history of mankind Quesada and Cheshire were the type of airmen who as extending over a day. Air Power Doctrine has had mixed understood the need for air power development and reviews over the century, especially from non-airmen, and application doctrine to have an intellectual rock solid has not been without its false prophets. Nonetheless, when foundation. The Royal Australian Air Force and the derived and articulated expertly and rigorously by those with Australian Defence Force as a whole is well positioned in vision, doctrine serves to underpin military success or warn this regard. One hundred years of military aviation has seen of military disaster. the Royal Australian Air Force institutionalise the informed and reasoned shaping of its air power doctrine and strategy. One such visionary was Pete Quesada. I was fortunate to There is hardly a more important aspect of its business to meet and spend some time with him after I had approached get right. him on behalf of the faculty and students at US Air War College to be our Dining-In speaker. His record is quite remarkable; Brent Espeland from being involved in the 24 hour flight of the ‘Question National President Mark’ flight in the 1920s which demonstrated, albeit in a February 2014 rudimentary way using fuel cans, the doctrinal potential of air to air refuelling to deliver a significant increase in military effect through unparalleled levels of reach and endurance; through introducing FM communications between air and armour with Montgomery in the Middle East; to losing the fight against Le May for the USAF to retain an appropriate level of tactical air power capability. The Middle East initiative was even the more remarkable for the fact that Quesada purchased the FM radios, which had been commercially available in the US before the War, from his own family finances in the first instance and then ‘borrowed’ some C-47s to fly them to the Middle East. However, it was the clash with Le May and others in the late 1940s about strategic and tactical air power that he was the most passionate about. He had warned about the need for balance but in the end resigned in protest. Within two years the Korean War had erupted and he was proved correct. It came as bit of a shock to my fellow students at the College when Quesada spoke highly of the first tactical air power WINGS Autumn 2014 10 National Council National Council Editor’s Page Wings is the official publication of the RAAF Association publications but aims to update members on the Air Force of Australia. Although it was ‘managed’ by NSW Division Today, information for veterans and to provide a modicum of for some years, Wings is a national publication, historically historical articles, from World War II, Korea, Malaysia and since the 1950s, and endorsed by the National Council in Vietnam. However, articles from the Middle East from the 1989. It is not the authority on RAAF history; the RAAF His- 1990s and later campaigns are few and attempts are under- torical Section in Canberra and the RAAF Museum are the way to address this scarcity. repositories of Air Force history. I endorse the concept of Wings and I am an ardent supporter The current and future Wings issues provide a balance on of its publication in its current configuration.